The Top 10 Posts In 2010 On Search Marketing Standard

It’s nearing the end of the year — soon everyone will be scattering to enjoy the holiday season — so it’s time for our annual “Top 10 Posts” blog post. This year it has become clear that our readers and visitors are most interested in practical, how-to advice and tips. Theory is nice, but practice is what most are looking for in challenging economic times such as we experienced throughout 2010. This is strikingly apparent in our list of Top 10 this time around, presented in no particular order, spanning as they do a variety of different aspects of search engine marketing.

Rebecca discusses the top three reasons why it is imperative that anyone aspiring to success online needs to develop a social media strategy, followed by four easy steps to get you started on your way.

Although choice is often touted as one of the best aspects of online commerce, too much choice on your landing page can lead to inaction and abandonment of your site and possible loss of a sale. Using an example, Tim discusses various possible problems presented and offers three basic tips for ensuring that too much choice doesn’t doom your landing page.

Restructuring a site that has already been optimized for SEO can seem like a mission impossible. Chris provides steps to consider, the types of items you want to ensure are maintained during and after the restructure, and techniques for the special circumstances of large sites.

Assuming that your site will look the same on whichever browser it is viewed is a short-sighted approach towards online marketing. Rebecca provides a checklist to help website owners ensure that their site looks as it should no matter where it is shown, together with links to some tools that can help you achieve the goal.

The iPad has been out for a number of months now, but the advice in this post on some basics to keep in mind when considering how your website will appear on the iPad is still very apt. Magnus advocates an early start on thinking about optimization for tablet devices, and the popularity of the iPad since its launch proves this to be good advice.

Article marketing is a time-honored online marketing technique. Here, Rebecca updates her list of article marketing sites with 11 that are worth investigating, including details on each one’s scope, advantages and disadvantages.

Jaimie discusses the SEO ramifications of faceted navigation, an increasingly popular way to deal with organizing product data on large ecommerce sites. He looks at facets in terms of how they can turn into a spider trap, as well as issues of the long tail, site response times, and duplicate content concerns.

Patrick answers the age-old question of how long it really takes to get ranking on Google’s first page and provides a recipe for success in achieving that magical goal in just one month. Rapid ranking can happen, but it requires precise implementation of a number of crucial aspects.

In a two-part post, Garrett discusses the need for online marketers to shift their thinking from “an anchor text and SERP manipulation mentality” towards concentrating on engaging link prospects and creating/promoting content. Doing so deepens your involvement in the communities surrounding your site and increases the chances and opportunities for more relevant and valuable linking opportunities. He includes comments on how to work with other departments in your company to achieve synergy in link building efforts. These posts were followed up by Garrett’s article, “Link Building For Beginners In 30 Minutes A Month,” published in our Fall 2010 print/digital magazine (subscribe for access).

The basics are not just for beginners. As Rebecca writes, it’s just as important for those who have been involved in search engine optimization for long enough that they feel they are way beyond the basics to revisit them every once in a while. To help, she identifies six on-page optimization basics that are critical to any website, each basic discussed in detail with tips included.

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We invite you to take another look at all 10 of our top posts from 2010 and explore related posts that you may come across in your reading. Happy Holidays to all, however you may celebrate the season! Many, many thanks to all of you for the time you took throughout the year to visit our site, read our offerings, and offer your valuable comments and opinions.

About the Author

Frances Krug has worked in market research since graduating from UCLA with an MA and CPhil in Latin American history. As an editor and online content provider for the last 7 years, she currently is Associate Editor at iNET Interactive, where she also directs Search Marketing Standard's email marketing program.